Word.ws English Dictionary

imprinted

/ɪmˈpɹɪntɪd/

imprinted is the simple past and past participle of imprint.

Adjective

imprinted (comparative more imprinted, superlative most imprinted)

  1. Stamped or impressed.
  2. Produced by or exhibiting imprinting; showing distinction by its origin from the paternal or maternal genome.
    • The inference is that there is an imprinted gene somewhere on the X chromosome, which is normally switched on only on the paternal copy and that this gene somehow enhances the development of social adjustment [...].1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2004, page 217

Meaning of imprint

Verb

imprint (third-person singular simple present imprints, present participle imprinting, simple past and past participle imprinted)

  1. To leave a print, impression, image, etc.
    • For a fee, they can imprint the envelopes with a monogram.
  2. To learn something indelibly at a particular stage of life, such as who one's parents are.
    • Baby birds are known for a propensity to imprint; they tend to imprint on whichever creatures they perceive to be their parents — including humans doing wildlife rescue!
  3. To mark a gene as being from a particular parent so that only one of the two copies of the gene is expressed.

See all 6 meanings of imprint

Forms of imprinted

comparativemore imprinted
superlativemost imprinted

Origin of imprinted

From imprint + -ed.

Words formed from imprinted

Phrases with imprinted

Questions about imprinted

What does imprinted mean?
Imprinted means stamped or impressed.
What is imprinted the simple past and past participle of?
Imprinted is the simple past and past participle of imprint.
What part of speech is imprinted?
Imprinted is an adjective.
How do you pronounce imprinted?
Imprinted is pronounced /ɪmˈpɹɪntɪd/ (UK).

Words near imprinted in the dictionary

  1. imprimus
  2. imprint
  3. imprint on
  4. imprintability
  5. imprintable
  6. imprinted
  7. imprinted on
  8. imprintee
  9. imprintees
  10. imprinter
  11. imprinters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: imprinted (page history and authors); imprint (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-imprinted.wav.

Cite this entry: “imprinted.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/imprinted. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.